The campaign comes in the wake of Nielsen’s survey across 16 Indian cities where as many as 77% respondents believed ‘dengue’ mosquito bites occurred in the night.ET Bureau | October 28, 2015, 18:30 IST

The campaign comes in the wake of Nielsen’s survey across 16 Indian cities where as many as 77% respondents believed ‘dengue’ mosquito bites occurred in the night.AHMEDABAD: Mosquito repellent makers such as Godrej Consumer Products, Dabur and Piramal Enterprise are heading to schools with their vaporisers, creams, patches and bands as Aedes aegypti, or the 'morning' dengue mosquitos, have so far hit 17,000 people including children and caused 40 deaths in the country.

These companies have increased their marketing efforts targeted at schoolchildren even as a recent survey by market tracker Nielsen indicated that most people are not aware how dengue is spread. "Children are the biggest influencers in the family. Considering there is ignorance about the dengue mosquito — consumers presume just like the malaria mosquito, it comes in the evenings — it is important that the myths are addressed," said Sunil Kataria, business head (India & SAARC) at Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL).

The company is all set to roll out a 'Subah Bolo Good Knight' campaign across Indian schools "where dengue mosquitoes are most likely to attack children", he said. The campaign comes in the wake of Nielsen's survey across 16 Indian cities where as many as 77% respondents believed 'dengue' mosquito bites occurred in the night.

Also, 64% respondents said schools are not using mosquito repellents despite children being more prone to dengue in their classrooms. Nearly 80% respondents believe that children are more likely to heed to the advice of their teachers than those of their parents when it came to education about diseases. That's one reason why Godrej plans to take its campaign to classrooms. "The campaign will run across all platforms — social media, television and print — for a year," said Kataria.

"Unless there is behavioural change (among consumers about using mosquitorepellents even during the mornings), dengue prevention would be difficult," he said.